Trenton Thunder (MLB Draft League) @ Trenton Thunder Ballpark (Trenton, NJ)

AKA "How to recover after a truly shocking breakup"

*This trip occurred on June 4th, 2025.

A long time Eastern League stalwart (if you consider 1994 to be “long time”) that found themselves on the outside looking in after 2020 when the Yankees (whom they had been affiliated with since 2003) pulled the rug from under them in favor of an affiliation with the Somerset Patriots (formerly of the Atlantic League), the Trenton Thunder found new life with the newly formed MLB Draft League - an unusual “hybrid” league designed for draft eligible players. In the first half of the season, the league is, in essence, a summer collegiate league featuring draft eligible prospects; after the MLB All Star break, the league “switches” to players who have exhausted their amateur eligibility and remain undrafted (I believe that other collegiate leagues require that players have NCAA eligibility remaining after the summer). Of the teams in the Draft League, Trenton was the highest leveled team at Double-A; one team was from what is essentially now High-A, while the others were all New York-Penn League refugees¹.

The “demotion” hasn’t seemed to affect attendance - the team has led the MLB Draft League in attendance by a decent margin each of the last three years, and were second in 2021 (probably due to pandemic factors - one of which was, somewhat ironically, the stadium hosting a Triple-A team). This is interesting, as it really feels like going down levels and/or losing affiliation has a tendency to impact attendance numbers negatively (see: New Britain and Norwich in Connecticut). Case in point: the reported attendance for this game (7,022) was only 99 fans less than the other two games in the Draft League that night combined; and to give an idea of just how massive the crowd was, I got into the stadium around half an hour before the game and had already missed out on the giveaway for the first thousand fans! Sadly, however, the Thunder were blown out by the visiting Williamsport Crosscutters; I left when the game was 6-3 in the seventh, but it ended 13-4, so…

The team plays in what is now officially called Trenton Thunder Ballpark; however, the stadium’s former name Arm & Hammer Park is still visible above the main gates and atop the scoreboards: Arm & Hammer Park. The park is located on the shore of the Delaware River, but you can’t really see it from the field due to the tree line in right field (the park faces south). However, it (and Pennsylvania) are visible from the end of the first base side of the concourse - which is (for better or worse) probably one of the main reasons the Yankees left: distance (Somerset is closer to New York than Trenton). Speaking of the Yankees, the facade above the suites features images of former Thunder players who went on to the majors (all of them with the Yankees) - the good (a Derek Jeter rehab stint), the okay (Gary Sanchez), and the GOAT: Greg Bird. As an aside, one BIG thing to note if you’re driving here (which is likely as the nearest public transportation is several blocks away): parking is cash only.

There’s not much to say about the concourse IMO, as it’s fairly standard (and doesn’t wrap around the outfield), but it’s at the top of the seating bowl and has views to the field everywhere except right behind the press box (i.e. behind home plate). The seating bowl itself, however, is interesting: it’s split into upper and lower sections, with a walkway separating the two (it’s hard to call it a concourse as there’s nothing but trash/recycling bins on it). Coincidentally, Somerset (who replaced Trenton in the Eastern League as mentioned earlier) has the same setup; the main difference being that the gates are at concourse level at Somerset, whereas in Trenton the concourse is elevated above the gates (think places like Brooklyn or New Hampshire).

One of the team's most famous traditions is a little thing known as the bat dog. During the first inning, a golden retriever replaces the bat boy in retrieving players bats after they leave the batters box and bringing them to the dugout. I don't know if the Thunder were the first team to do this (as I’ve seen other teams do this), but it's something they seem to take a lot of pride in (to the point where they’ve added a “Trenton Goldens” alt identity).

In terms of concessions, HOW IN THE STARS DO YOU NOT HAVE TOMATO PIE? It’s (another) one of the team’s alt identities and easily Trenton’s most famous culinary item, yet it is nowhere to be found on any of the concession stand menus. Mind you, however, that the Lehigh Valley IronPigs also have a “Tomato Pies” alt identity, but I don’t recall seeing tomato pie there either². They do, however, have one of the more contentious food items famously from New Jersey (which is also one of their alt identities): what they call pork roll³!

They also feature a somewhat “local-ish” item: Chickie's and Pete’s Crabfries! Yes, it’s more a Philly thing, and yes, the IronPigs have this too, but I finally tried it here after seeing it in a few places before, and it was actually quite interesting! I guess part of this is because Trenton is closer to Philadelphia than Allentown, though the Thunder have never had a Phillies connection due to Reading.

On a final note, Thunder ownership is hellbent on getting affiliated ball back in Trenton, so they've been working on the stadium to get it to MiLB specifications (the changes mainly deal with player facilities, so you may not notice them). How they're going to get that team without an MLB expansion I'm not sure (though I did see a strange claim that they "deserved" the Jersey Shore BlueClaws' spot in the SAL), but given that we've seen several shuffles since 2020 (plus 2025 is when MLB wanted Minor League teams to meet specifications or else), anything is possible (and there are constant rumors about what teams may end up "moving”).

MERCH

I thought about coming to the team store here a few times before the game, but never did as it felt rather inconvenient; I thought about combining it with a return to Shoretown Ballpark, but the two are close to an hour away from each other (also I later learned that the BlueClaws team store is apparently only open for games now). However, once I saw it, I was curious as to how it operates outside of games due to its somewhat unusual location: the store is fully on concourse level with its entrance inside the gates, meaning that if you're coming here outside of game time, you actually have to go into the stadium and climb up to the concourse to get to the store.

Inside, the most notable thing I found here (i.e. something outside of the standard merchandise items most teams sell) were dog toys (playing into the bat dog tradition). Sadly, not only were all the jerseys sublimated, but the home jersey (i.e. the one I would've been most interested in) was a shirsey with only the top two buttons...

One thing that may be important if you're thinking of collecting hats (like I've been doing for 20 years): MLB Draft League teams all wear flexfit hats made by a company called Outdoor Cap (because apparently New Era fitteds are only for affiliated teams). However, not only does the team still have some smaller 5950s from the old days, but the team recently struck a deal with a manufacturer for a line of fitted hats. I wasn't really that interested in them after trying them on, however, so I stuck with getting the on field flexfits. I will note that this ended up driving a decision I made later in the year - something I'll probably talk about in a few months...